Skip to main content

Alas, MTN Is Sponsoring Gospel Music In Ghana



One of the biggest struggles of the spread of the gospel is the vigorous reluctance of corporate organizations  to sponsor gospel events, media and talents. Outside of the Far East, where neo-communist governance (almost) outlaws open gospel activities, Africa records the highest corporate disfavor for gospel arts - though the continent is presently the most Christianized on earth. It is therefore both applause-worthy and interesting that MTN is sponsoring a gospel concert; one of international repute; with Pepsi and Eurostar co-sponsoring.

American leading worship leader and pastor, William Mcdowell and Nigeria's queen of worship, Sinach, are the poster-acts in the MTN Ghana Stands In Worship Concert holding at the Accra sports stadium 6pm tomorrow, Saturday October 10. What's more, BEHOLD the event is gated, with fees going as high as 50GHc($14 or N5000).

This would baffle the average Nigerian gospel entertainment crew. {Original post}Yet no nation sees up to 500,000 people gather for a gospel concert outside of South America and maybe South/East Asia, but Nigeria. Organizers of this mega-event, House On The Rock Church, do not even consider charging a fee - they do not as little as take a freewill offering; as earth-shaking successful as the annual concert has been.

In Nigeria too, there are, arguably, more churches than credit-worthy businesses. Still gospel music and other gospel arts suffer the most rebuffs from non-religious corporate firms. Even production crews of entertainment projects openly disqualify gospel entries advising to 'do something else but gospel'.

Curiously, possibly 70% of the finest entertainment people were in church choirs, drama departments and media units. To an odd extent, the trend seems to be that talented individuals join churches when nobody else saw potential in them; and for the opportunity to exercise their talents, have theme honed into skills, enjoy stage time - all free of charge. Then they advance on to the mainstream entertainment/media sector, worked into marketable shape. And when the opportunity comes to influence the promotion of gospel acts in the mainstream sector, they fail to see potential.

One wonders, for instance, where 'Destiny Child talent competition has gone. Of all non-denominational gospel talent contests out there, Creative Concepts  'Rising Star' - in collaboration with Global Audio Factory - seems to be the only consistent (more like persistent) - holding out to provide a more suitable alternative for talented church singers who would not back down from the secular music producers and marketers' persuasion.

The situation is not all dire in Nigeria, however, as gospel entertainment does enjoy minute pockets of sponsorship every now and then, especially in mega-cities like Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt; but nothing that could be categorized as 'promoting'. Hence, a lot needs to happen for gospel Entertainment to grow into industry recognition.

Entertainment (and related) industry leaders seem to prefer keeping their scouting outside of worship circles. Those who have the courage to invest in the gospel arts possess mainly personal conviction, energy, ideas, passion and no cash. On further thought, it would make commercial sense for Entertainment scouts who have either funds or access to funding to sponsor gospel entertainment if only  to find talents earlier than their industry competitors who prefer to wait in studios for talents graduating from the church art departments to find them.

This being the situation, Gospel music followers in Africa will have to commend Ghanaian show host Fifi Folson and Imajin Advertising for the courageous work of promoting gospel music and worship acts in the West African country. And those who cannot be in Accra tomorrow will relish a live report of the MTN Ghana Stands In Worship Concert. Take note Fifi.

Uduak Umo
A PR Consultant, Public Analyst, Writer & Music Analyst
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Website Designer Buys Tech Company For $6.8M

Today, we read the story of a Website design company that pulled out $6.8M to buy a tech company and we were blown away with a huge 'WOW'! WordSphere, a website development firm out in California forked out the mad sum of nearly 7M to buy DrupalWare, a tech company known for its software solutions. According to  Stewart Johanson, from WordSphere's  Public Relations department, t he package paid for includes the DrupalWare website, a portfolio of 164 active clients, 6 super specialists, an excellent reputation of delivering top-quality services to clients, along with the entire DrupalWare brand. The 6 specialists acquired immediately transfer into WordSphere's senior DevOps team. Note that DrupalWare's clients include such billion-dollar brands as Pfizer, Tesla Motors, the City of New York and other Fortune 500 companies. Users of its services include names like - wait for it - Nokia, ebay, MacDonald's, The Australian Government, and Havard University, with other...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Every Brand Should Include In Their Social Media Guide

 A social media style guide is connected to your brand voice. You want your brand essence to be showcased on social media and other marketing platforms for better brand recognition. Social Media Guide A social media style guide can offer your team concise information about publishing posts, so there’s less room for error. It will also make it easier for you to train new employees. That, in turn, will save both parties time. The less time you waste, the faster you’ll reach your social media goals. In creating your guide, you need to understand what to include in it in the first place. Here’s a list of important elements: 1. Consumer persona: Creating the consumer persona of your target audience is an important exercise for any business. The consumer persona is an exclusive collection of data about your target audience. Including a detailed consumer persona in your social media style guide will allow your team to understand the audience they’re targeting. That will help them customi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chile 2015: What Happens To The World When Eagles Flock

Uduak Umo Eagles don’t flock. But not Emmanuel Amuneke’s boys at the FIFA Under 17 World Cup holding at Chile. These ones field one of the youngest squads; play with a deadly combination of energy, appetite and intellect. With the sharpest attack edge in the tournament, the most painstaking midfield, an amazingly brave and athletic goalie, a shaky defence unit notwithstanding, this Nigerian Golden Eaglets prove the danger when Eagles flock. Announcing Prospect Soccer is like a religion in Nigeria. And it wouldn’t be out of place to say that the English Premier league only began to gain significant followership in Nigeria when Nigerians ran out of patience for the national teams and local clubs following decay in the administration of the game in the country. In the last decade and more, Nigerians have been deprived the joy of watching their national teams dominate the world. Hence, publicity for Chile 2015 in Nigeria was met with sad indifference. The people no longer i...
Post a Comment
Read more